CHEMICAL
Asset Optimization Services Helps Petrochemical
Plant Improve Maintenance Practices
RESULTS
• Established Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to
measure plant performance and asset effectiveness
• Greater than 98% availability achieved by implementing
predictive technology
• More than 50% reduction in average monthly alarm
rates
• Optimized HART® instrument scanning rates using
asset priority ranking
APPLICATION
The acrylonitrile (AN) plant with a capacity of 260 kilotons per annum
is one of the most profitable units in an 8-unit complex.
CUSTOMER
The Shanghai SECCO Petrochemical Company Ltd., located
Shanghai, China, is a joint venture of the China Petroleum and
Chemical Corporation, Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Ltd., and
BP Chemicals East China Ltd. Inc. Shanghai SECCO Petrochemical
Company Ltd. aims to be an internationally competitive enterprise,
manufacturing and marketing high quality petrochemical products.
CHALLENGE
Several forced outages following startup of the acrylonitrile
plant were a major cause for concern. Reactive maintenance was
consuming half of the maintenance man-hours, leaving too little time
for preventive maintenance. There was no meaningful critical ranking
of production assets and no ongoing analysis of failure probabilities.
As a result, turnaround maintenance had to be performed every
18 months, increasing costs and cutting down on productivity.
Emerson’s AMS Suite asset management software was in place in the
relatively new plant, but it was not optimized or used to implement a
predictive maintenance strategy.
For more information:
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“Number of alarms reduced from
an average of 200 per month in
2008 to 75 in 2011”
Ye Yingmin,
SECCO Shanghai
POWER GENERATION
CHEMICAL
SOLUTION
Emerson’s Asset Optimization Services group was commissioned to
conduct a site audit to identify key areas where improvement could
dramatically impact the maintenance challenges. This study included
an assessment of the process technology and the current level of
automation as well as a benchmark gap analysis designed to reveal
areas of improvement. Recommended actions were to optimize
the existing AMS Suite software, adopt a predictive maintenance
strategy to cut reactive maintenance to just 10 percent, and
improve internal communication of maintenance information.
Asset Optimization Services experts implemented AMS Suite to
enable an optimized maintenance program driven by diagnostics
accessed from 1000 key field instruments and valves. These assets
were prioritized by a critical ranking according to the needs of the
process. The priority assigned to each asset determines the scope
and timing of maintenance provided, whether predictive or
preventive. Field-generated diagnostics are easily obtained using
AMS Suite, so degraded assets can be identified well in advance.
Plant personnel use information from all available sources to
determine which assets might be failing and estimate how long the
process can continue to run without risking an unplanned shutdown.
Cost-effective corrective measures can then be implemented.
“Average daily availability
increased from 97.5% in 2008
to 98.92% in 2011.”
Ye Yingmin,
SECCO Shanghai
Asset Optimization Services experts also consolidated diagnostic
information from many sources onto a single AMS Suite platform,
so the condition of all essential assets can easily be communicated
via the Internet. In this way, the current health of critical assets can
be viewed by any authorized person in the plant.
The optimized maintenance strategy enhances maintenance
effectiveness by promoting a clear understanding of critical asset
health and how to apply this knowledge to protect the plant long
term. As a result, reliability improvements and production increases
can be sustained. In fact, unscheduled shutdowns have been
minimized and availability improved to greater than 98 percent.
Emerson Process Management
Asset Optimization
12001 Technology Drive
Eden Prairie, MN 55344 USA
T 1(952) 828-3633
F 1(952) 828-3006
www.assetweb.com
©2011, Emerson Process Management.
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